I’m coming to you with an actual completely finished room of the house-the basement bathroom (okay minus the door and touch ups to the trim).
Greg and I started on it, with some help from family, in May. Weekends, weekday evenings and vacation time were spent on this project. Remember, we tore the old bathroom down then started fresh.
Here’s what the old bathroom looked like…
Nasty. The cheapest shower stall you can get (and damaged at that), gross carpet, fiberglass paneling, a window that let water flow in and just all kinds of bad. The door would get jammed into the ductwork so that’s as far as it would open.
Keep in mind when you look at the photos (which aren’t the greatest but I couldn’t wait to share) that the bathroom is basically the same size as it was before. We took just a smidge of space from the utility room to make the custom shower. The ductwork runs through the middle of the basement which is what you see in the pics. As long as you aren’t any taller than 6’3″ it is a comfortable space. Ready to see it now?
Can I brag a lil bit and tell you this was renovated for under $1,200? Greg did the work himself with some help from family and myself. The paint is Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl which is the same gray green in the master bedroom. It looks different in each room due to lighting which works for me. You can find most of the resources from this past post.
This is my favorite room of the house right now. A little more detail work (add some color and accessories), the addition of an actual door and we have serenity.
We’re up to our eyeballs in home improvement projects right now, but I promise that once a significant amount of the basement bathroom is finished (tiling takes a loooong time) I will share the whole shebang.
I wanted to drop in and tell you that in my free time I’ve been making these awesome fabric ornament ball decorations for the holidays and beyond.
Some of you might have seen my cart full of supplies from Jo Ann Fabric on Instagram (where I’m also leaking some photos of the renovated bathroom and the beautiful things I plan to incorporate in that space).
My mom and sis began making these balls months ago (and selling them at a store in Shipshewana…perhaps other locations soon). During my parent’s visit for Thanksgiving my mom showed me how to create them. It takes me about an hour (or slightly longer) per ball, but they are addicting!
You can check more of them out in my other etsy shop, Dabble Studio. Happy holidays!
Intriguing title, huh? Yeah I could stand to work on those. Anyway, let me catch you up with some photos floating around my photo stream from the last month, i.e., I don’t recall where life left off last I posted so I shall rely on that as a refresher.
These two are still adorable. Obviously. And neither are trying to put those jeans on nor did a house fall on anyone in our bedroom.
That dresser went home with a nice couple expecting twin boys over the weekend. Oh yeah, didn’t tell you about it. It was a major pain. As in I had an entire post in my head dedicated to the pains of this piece and addressing issues that might come up on your projects, but knowing how “meant to be” it was for this couple and their twins made it all better. It ended up looking like denim which was cool but not at all planned. The milk paint color was called peacock if that gives you any clue.
The sewing cabinet found a home with a woman in Indy (whose colleague just happened to be in Minnesota and picked it up).
Picked up this cute bench in St. Paul from a guy on craigslist
Only an hour of mostly interstate driving with it on our roof
I’m out of furniture refurbishing projects. There are a few things I could work on (like my idea for a kitchen island, repairing that Jenny Lind bed or the bench above) and sure I could start working on our own furniture that needs repaired, but my excuse is that they could be damaged further during the move so I should wait.
A mess. An organized mess.
I’m not sure where to do the projects so that they won’t be in the way of another project. It’s hard enough finding a place to paint the trim we just received (3+ weeks after ordering it). The garage now houses the car for the cold months so it’s out. Might have to halt those furniture jobs.
We scored this dishwasher from craigslist for $60. It matches the stove and refrigerator!
I got a new hairstyle a little over a week ago. Story goes: I cut my own bangs in March. Had them look good maybe twice, saw myself in a photo over the summer and said “how did I think I looked good?” I started wearing them all side-swepty which was better but they were too thick and with my curly hair…let’s just say I was not reflecting to the world what I wanted-modern, playful, sexy, creative-more like an extra from the film Deliverance or Brooke Shields character on the Middle. On a good day.
After collecting some hair ideas on my Pinterest board and one trip to the metro one night I just went for it. Walked in without knowing more than the salon’s rating and chopped it off. The stylist picked something she thought my hair could do (which ends up, as I knew from my entire life experiences in hairstyle choosing, that my hair can’t look much like anything I really like).
The cut ended up not looking like what she picked but I convinced myself that my new bestie (I really like this stylist) had worked a sorta miracle. The novelty of it thrilled me. Then I, one of the most challenged of hair doers, freaked out wondering how I would replicate it and once the newness wore off, realized it wasn’t quite there anyway. Finally found a better look that involves letting it air dry. Don’t hate me. I can’t believe how “thin” it is with these layers, how much volume I have (which only used to exist about mid-back cause my curls aren’t those awesome curly everywhere types), how little product it takes, how easy it is to comb out of the shower and that even after sleeping on it it looks pretty decent. Never in my life.
I realize I take a lot of selfies in the bathroom but I do not get my picture taken at all beyond this (unless Greg secretly does). This is after I slept on it and that J Crew sweater was $1 at a garage sale (and will look better on me when I lose weight and stop looking like Uncle Fester)
It may not be the exact look I was going for but it’s a million times better. It puts some pep back in my weight loss journey-one reason I wanted desperately to start feeling like me again was a lack of much progress there. I let myself go over the last 5 years, gaining back the 22lbs. (and then some) I lost for my sister’s wedding then no longer doing anything for myself really. I stopped going to a salon and cut my hair myself (which is fine if you have any skill), stopped doing any sort of skin routine, never had nails but they look really awful now, I wear pajama bottoms most days until I get my workout in and my other uniform is a pair of ill-fitting jeans with holes in the wrong place and paint all over them. I stopped buying myself clothes, shoes, anything that was a little treat because I thought I was too fat to deserve it. No makeup. I started to see the old me vanish and at first, I thought good for me because she seemed high maintenance but eventually became more like I had seen the line, crossed it and then ran 500 miles from it. I didn’t know who the person was in the mirror. While I was discovering the career that makes me feel amazing (furniture refurbishing) and pursuing other passions, I let those other areas go and felt I was not projecting the woman I wanted to showcase. I’m ready to hit another level that makes me feel more like the me that tries again. Sorry, that was way too long. And mushy. Gag. On to the bathroom. Where you might be already gagging.
Greg was on vacation last week so we could bust our (mainly his) hump on the basement bathroom. I researched shower rods, thresholds, soldering and anything else that came up a problem. And posted fairly frequently for me on my Instagram account.
This is where the basement bathroom started…thought I had a better picture but nope
Then we gutted it
Blocked up the window and started again with a new design where we picked up a little space in the utility room to make the custom shower bigger. Otherwise, we were facing installing another teeny 32″ x 32″ shower. Not appealing.
Adding a stucco wall was one of many things we did
Floor leveler
Drywall time
Backer board for the shower after some Pex plumbing installation
Mud time
Notice how low the ceiling is in the center of the room? That’s the ductwork and something we tried to remedy but decided that anyone over 6’2″ would just have to live with discomfort in this bathroom. I’m short so yeah.
Greg finished putting the drywall on the outside wall the other night and continues to mud the walls in the evening. It’s a long process when done right. I hope to get some paint and tile up soon. But more floor leveling in the hall and a door jamb will come first. Catch you on the flipside of this bathroom reno.
Just popping in to show you our latest refurbished dresser. The one I (Annie) found on the curb. The one that had maybe been in a fire and/or was the victim of a stripping gone wrong. (Sounds like my Saturday night…haha.) I’m not even sure I shared finding this piece that hot summer day. Doh. I wrangled it into the car myself next to the bags of groceries and away I went.
She (maybe I should give her a name) is finished in “old white” chalk paint and has scalloped knobs in natural wood and off-white. A few coats of hemp oil and she is fresh and ready to go. Find her in our etsy shop.
This one took roughly 1,000 hours to sand and clean since she had nasty brown residue everywhere. Well, it felt that way but I think she was worth it. What do you think?
I’m off to work on the only dresser we have left in our possession. I need to fix that…anyway, have a lovely week!
Call me a slacker blogger and add slacker photographer in there too because I’ve only captured a handful of moments in the last few weeks.
We’ve been working on getting all the doors and windows painted instead of doing it as we get to that room as we had been doing. The plan is to get before and after shots of each room (without furniture if I can work it out) when it’s totally finished. Fingers crossed in a month.
The house is looking maahh-velous though. No more orange, warm tones everywhere and old feeling. I’m shamelessly admitting that our bathroom door is a blanket right now though.
We only have 2 bathrooms and a kitchen to update, new floors to put in, get the carpet and ducts cleaned, do something with the stairway to the basement and touch ups to do.
I sit looking in the direction of the 3 season porch and cringe because we have no plans to improve it…and it needs help. I still don’t like it overall even though it’s been helpful housing the pups during projects they shouldn’t be present for. If we were going to live here longer I’d rip it off and put a bigger patio in, maybe French doors in the dining room.
Much like I wanted to do more for the exterior but won’t get to. We did put in a lot of time outside to get it to this point-with a new patio in the breezeway between the house and garage-so that will have to do.
The attic has a beautiful new entrance that I’ve not really shared because I’ve been waiting for the trim. Oh well.
But here it is and yes, it’s a hidden entry to stairs to the new, large attic entry (that we added lighting to) that looks like shelving between the dining and living room. You push on the left side of the shelf to open the latch. There was a lot of planning, math and an expensive heavy duty hinge in that baby. We finished it a looong time ago and it’s been housing supplies for projects ever since.
All of these things, along with new doors and trim, will have to suffice. All of this will have been done in two years’ time, mind you. Here’s the list of things we have done and what we have left on our ‘House Projects’ page.
Anywho, painting the doors and windows is somewhat slow-going. The paint is Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White. Nice and crisp but not in-your-face white.
We’ll soon order the remaining trim and paint that then hopefully knock most of the upstairs out on that front over a weekend. Then we can get back to the basement bathroom.
New drum pendant light in the dining room
The orders we made are coming in left and right. I think I’ve been dealing with customer service most days. Part of the fun of renovating paired with my notorious bad luck.
Warning: the upcoming paragraphs are rants.
The pedestal sink I ordered turned out to be only the basin even though the discount company listed it as an entire sink. After arguing with them for a few days I gave up and ordered a base with another discount company on Amazon. (The basin, by the way, has slight manufacturer marks on it which I later found but I’m so tired of dealing with pick ups and scheduling returns that I will accept a less-than-perfect sink in my reno.)
Just yesterday I checked the shipment tracking to see the base was damaged and undeliverable and that I’d have to contact Amazon. So, I did. They can only refund the amount and asked that I buy another one using them as the seller and they would waive the one day shipping fee. That ended up being $20 more than what I had paid for the first base. I contacted Amazon like they said to have the rep tell me he couldn’t help because I apparently was responding from another email…I wasn’t. I began a live chat with a rep who finally took care of everything.
The first pendant light I ordered for the dining room was not as described or pictured AT ALL and after arguing with that company about a complete refund (and getting nowhere) I am still waiting a week later for my money back…even though I am out the $35 for shipping.
The rep for that company first wanted us to drop it off at a Fed Ex location and show them the RMA number where they would create a return shipping label. Well, Greg took it to our local shipping store that ships USPS, UPS and Fed Ex where they charged Greg to print the RMA number (?) that they were supposed to scan from his phone (in the directions) then ended up telling Greg they couldn’t do the return (they could and it’s why we have to drive 20 minutes to a reliable shipper in a town over these days). That took 2 trips just before they closed and achieved nothing nor did they refund the charge to print which was for their own sake. That blew my mind.
I was in contact with the rep from the light place all night just to get him to finally schedule Fed Ex to come and pick it up at our house. The next nearest Fed Ex is 35 minutes away and not on a route we travel often. The rep didn’t tell me when they were coming so of course it was when I was gone and I had to reschedule. A day after they picked it up I received a call from Fed Ex saying they would pick it up the day before…that’s right, the day after what they had said/after it already happened. Might need some improvements on that automated message system, Fed Ex.
The kitchen sink I found on craigslist is not white but cream which will not do. Greg picked it up for me and didn’t notice (that’s my area). The first sink I found on craigslist…sigh…contacted the guy who said they were remodeling in a few weeks and to get back to him then but that it was ours in the meantime. Got back to him when he said they needed a few more weeks. Ok, contacted him again when he somehow didn’t know who I was. He said I could have it if I sent him a check (uhh no) or if I could wait another week we could come and get it. Scheduled the pick up when he wrote back and said it had been broken when they removed it. Back to kitchen sink searching.
All of these things happened in a little over a week and I’ve had other weeks and purchases just like this throughout this home improvement process. Got any good stories of your own? I could use those about now.
To see our picks for the upstairs bathroom (and find out how I get great deals) visit this link. To see our picks for the basement bath click this link. To check out our paint choices for the house see this post. To donate money click…just kidding.
What would be your lighting picks in the large world of illumination?
2) 2 Gatco Latitude II Single Sconce Light in Satin Nickel (I actually had to replace a broken one but 3 of the “replacement’ lights arrived broken as well…and the one I kept has a chip that will face the back) $66.50
Paint color will most likely be the batch we have from all the samples we tested for the living room.
To see our picks for the upstairs bathroom (and find out how I get great deals) visit this link. To check out our paint choices for the house see this post.
The amount to finish the basement bathroom (which was completely gutted and had a new, moved doorway created) will be under $1,300. If you read about our plans for the upstairs bathroom, estimated at under $2,300, that means 2 bathrooms finished for around $3,600. Greg and I think that’s pretty awesome. That’s even better than putting up a new, solid exterior door (free on craigslist) with handlesets, weatherstripping and a few other materials for about $125. Or the 8 beautiful doors we found for $300. Or all the free furniture we pick up. Eh, not quite.
We're Annie and Greg Witkamp (aka the Wits, aka Em & Wit Design). We salvage, refurbish and design furniture and homes. We're taking a break from an online & social media presence (for the most part). Our time on the blog was memorable and fun, but we're off to other projects and opportunities. Most derived from our shenanigans here. We'll drop in once in a while, but just know we're off chasing our dreams, tackling goals and living a life we enjoy.
Our specialty is wood furniture in rough shape that we come across on craigslist, at estate sales, on the curb, in a barn, you get it. Those pieces are cleaned, repaired, refurbished and good to go for years to come. Sometimes we design our own pieces.
As of spring 2016, we decided to make this website, the Wits, about our remodeling homes and emandwit.com about the furniture. You can shop there, ask us questions, see our newly finished pieces and portfolio.
We sold our second remodeled home near Seattle in August 2018 and moved to Richmond, Virginia. Getting to Washington was a goal that took years to achieve, but we had an opportunity come up and we grabbed hold (again)!
You can watch our journey right here, there, and/or through Instagram.
-To see the projects we did to our first home, check out the home improvement page. To see our current home projects, scroll through the most recent posts. (I need to update that....)
Some of you might have seen my cart full of supplies from Jo Ann Fabric on 
My mom and sis began making these balls months ago (and selling them at a store in 
Adding a stucco wall was one of many things we did
